


Christmas Shopping

by SmokySky



Series: Tommy Shelby's 12 Days Of Christmas [7]
Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: Advent Calendar, Advent Calendar Drabble, Christmas Presents, Christmas Shopping, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:15:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21922765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmokySky/pseuds/SmokySky
Summary: 12 Days of Christmas Advent Calendar fic based on the prompt: Christmas Shopping.Mabel and Ada discuss Tommy while they're out buying presents.
Relationships: Ada Shelby & Original Female Character(s), Tommy Shelby / Original Female Character(s) (mentioned)
Series: Tommy Shelby's 12 Days Of Christmas [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1559590
Comments: 3
Kudos: 28





	Christmas Shopping

**Author's Note:**

> Part 7 of the 12 Christmas-themed oneshots I'm attempting to write for the 12 days of Christmas...even though the chances of this series being finished before Christmas are literally _zero_.
> 
> Mabel and Ada go Christmas Shopping...and try to sort out the state of Mabel's love life while doing so.

Mabel smiled as Ada scrutinised the candy canes on offer from the local sweet shop. Mister Rowl, the grumpy old bastard who owned the place, might not bargain with them like most shopkeepers would, but Mabel and Ada would make the most out of all the money he made them spend.

And if it meant spending more time in his shop, winding him up, well then…

...Good.

The old git deserved every second he was fuming about Mabel and Ada pretending to um and ah over their purchases. Sure, they already knew exactly what they were going to buy - Mabel was getting Fruit Pastels for Finn, and Ada was getting Liquorice Allsorts for Polly and Barley Sugars for Arthur - they were in fact already holding what they were going to buy, they just wanted to annoy Mr Rowl for a little bit longer. Because if he was going to be irritated, he might as well have a  _ reason  _ to be irritated, instead of his usual reason of  _ sweet fuck all _ .

“So, when are you going to tell my brother that you’re in love with him?”

Mabel sighed: “I’ve been waiting for him to make the first move. You know what John, Arthur, and my brothers would be like if they found out I was the one who initiated anything.”

Ada nodded sympathetically: “Tommy would never live it down. But it probably wouldn’t make him any more miserable than he currently is, pining over you, thinking you don’t love him back.”

“I just...how can he not know?” Mabel asked - because no matter how many times she and Ada talked about this, she just still couldn’t understand. Tommy was so fucking smart, and yet he was also so fucking stupid sometimes.

“You’re talking about the boy who thought John was managing the books for their ‘business’.” Ada snorted: “Tommy’s no idiot...but he is  _ incredibly  _ oblivious.”

That, Mabel had to agree with. 

As much as she loved Tommy, and as much as she thought he was the smartest man she knew, she also thought he could be  _ incredibly  _ dense sometimes. It had stunned her when she heard from Ada that Polly had had to  _ tell _ Tommy that she had been looking over the brothers’ books. As if John could work with numbers - John was good at a lot of things, but numbers weren’t his strong point. Never had been,  _ veeery  _ likely never would be. So when Mabel had overheard that Arthur and Tommy had left their baby brother in charge of their numbers...she’d had to step in, or they’d be broke within a fortnight.

She’d always thought Tommy knew - she hadn’t exactly kept it a secret - but apparently he just...hadn’t been aware. Even though he was a genius, even though he always thought of every possible outcome in a situation, even though sometimes he seemed to know  _ everything _ , sometimes he just...missed things.

Like the fact Mabel loved him. And the fact she knew he loved her.

She hoped he did, anyway.

“Well, just because Tommy’s oblivious doesn’t mean he’s too proud to reject you for making the make the first move.” Ada decided, incs they had walked out Mister Rowl’s shop: “Although John and Arthur would be complete twats about it.”

Mabel snorted at what could very well be the understatement of the century: “They’d be worse than that.”

“Maybe you could just...tell him in private?”

“What private?” Mabel outright laughed at that one: “If it’s not your brothers, it’s mine. They might not believe Tommy will ever actually say anything about how he feels...but they don’t ever leave him alone with me, just in case.”

“What about when he sneaks into your room at night?”

“They’re listening at the bloody walls. They think I don’t know, but they’ve slipped up, so I know they do it.”

Ada almost growled in frustration - feeling Mabel totally understood at this point.

Everyday she looked at the boy she loved, at the boy she thought - hoped! - loved her, and every day there was nothing she could do. She couldn’t tell him she loved him, she couldn’t expect him to say he loved her, and she couldn’t get away from him, even if she wanted to. She constantly felt both blessed and cursed, and it was slowly driving her mad.

Something needed to change.

And  _ soon _ .

Mabel just wasn’t sure how to make it happen. She hadn’t known last year, last week, or even in the last half an hour...and as she traipsed around the shops, christmas shopping with Ada, she still had no idea. Even finding a gift for Tommy was more difficult than usual. Everyone else was sorted; her dad had a book that he’d been talking about, her brothers had jumpers, Finn had sweets, and John and Arthur would probably be getting coal, if their current behaviour of trying to embarrass Tommy into admitting his feelings ( _ because that plan really had no downside, did it? _ ) was going to continue. But Tommy? Mabel hadn’t seen anything she could give him.

Even after all day wandering around Birmingham with Ada in the pissing rain looking for something. She was almost ready to just give up and try and make him another scarf, even though she had knitted him a replacement for his yellow one last year...or maybe some gloves to match his new navy one…

...But then she saw her  _ it _ .

A pocket watch, in a jeweller’s window. It was a little dented, but the note next to it read that the jeweller would engrave the inside of the lid free of charge. It was the perfect thing.

“Ada! Ada, I found it! The perfect gift for Tommy!”

“Thank Christ for that!”

Mabel ignored Ada’s sarcastic tone - she was too happy over finding a brilliant gift for Tommy to get engaged in a verbal sniping war with Ada right now. She didn’t even turn to acknowledge Ada’s tone, ignoring her friend’s eye rolling to go inside the shop and enquire about the watch.

She was so happy to be told it could be engraved with any message she wanted while she waited, making it well worth the cost: even if it would leave Mabel penniless until she got the wags from her Saturday job at the end of January.

Tommy would love it, and that was all that mattered.

And, hopefully, it might make him take the hint that  _ she  _ loved  _ him _ , when he read the inscription on the inside lid of the watch:

__

__

__

_ ‘To Tommy, with all my love, forever, Mabel’ _ .

Even if she couldn’t say it aloud  _ (not without getting all their brothers to ruin his life, one way or another) _ , but she could give it to him in writing. And even if it was a little...inelegant, or blunt, reading the inscription was apparently enough to make Ada smile - and her approval was perhaps the most important sign that Tommy would like his present. If Ada liked it for Tommy, then Tommy would like it for himself.

And, hopefully, Mabel would be getting her own perfect Christmas present - Tommy finally realising that she returned his affections.

__

_...A girl could dream, anyway. _


End file.
